The use of greeting cards to provide a surprise upon the opening of the card has been the subject of many card developments, including the use of pop-up elements. The showering of confetti upon the opening of a greeting card would produce a major shock or surprise to the user and it is to this end that this invention is directed.
Several attempts have been made in the prior art to shower or otherwise randomly disperse particulate matter such as confetti from a greeting card. Among these are U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,160 to Balsamo which uses a rupturable packet of confetti which is triggered by the sender so that the recipient will cause the packet to rupture and thereby spew the confetti. British Patent No. 634,220 discloses a container held together by a string. Unwinding of the string and then rotating the confetti-filled container releases the confetti.
The prior art Balsamo device will not impart a velocity to the confetti and thus will not disperse as by showering or throwing out the confetti from a greeting card. Rather the Balsamo device merely spews out the confetti, apparently under the force of gravity. The British device is not readily adaptable to a greeting card.